


take it slow

by penelopes



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hannah Montana References, Peter is struggling, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 16:17:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12963336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penelopes/pseuds/penelopes
Summary: At lunch the third Wednesday of November, MJ’s phone goes off. Which would be totally normal, not at all worth mentioning, if her ringtone was Marimba or Constellation. MJ’s phone, though, starts blaring Hannah Montana’s classic “Best of Both Worlds.”Peter doesn’t pay much attention to it the first time. He just thinks it’s a bit weird that her phone is going off and she hasn’t made a move to answer it. She only looks at it, looks at Peter, then returns to her tea and book.Or: MJ might know Peter is Spider-Man and she might be taunting him with Hannah Montana. And they might be going on not-dates to Starbucks.





	take it slow

**Author's Note:**

> Helllooooo. I've had this sitting unfinished in my docs since the beginning of September. Instead of preparing for finals, I decided to clean it up a little and fill in missing parts to get it out of my drafts.
> 
> Title from Hannah Montana's Best of Both Worlds.
> 
> Enjoy!

When everything has finally settled down after Homecoming, MJ starts sitting with Peter and Ned every day at lunch. Then she starts taking part in their conversations. Then somehow they all become friends. She makes a great contribution to their friend circle. She’s sarcastic and a bit rude, but also has really great movie suggestions on Friday nights and makes a great buffalo chicken dip for said movie nights.

She fits in with them seamlessly. There are no problems.

Until:

At lunch the third Wednesday of November, MJ’s phone goes off. Which would be totally normal, not at all worth mentioning, if her ringtone was Marimba or Constellation. MJ’s phone, though, starts blaring Hannah Montana’s classic “Best of Both Worlds.”

Peter doesn’t pay much attention to it the first time. He just thinks it’s a bit weird that her phone is going off and she hasn’t made a move to answer it. She only looks at it, looks at Peter, then returns to her tea and book.

But then it keeps happening. When it’s not a phone call, it’s the alarm tone going off. Every day during lunch period at 12:15, “Best of Both Worlds” starts playing.  She says it’s a reminder to take her vitamins. Then she proceeds to pull out two Flintstone gummies and eat them one at a time whilst staring at Peter and Ned _daring_ them to say anything to her. (Peter had made the mistake of saying something about it last Monday and she’d furrowed her brow, leaned forward across the table, and made him feel two inches tall. _Am I not allowed to care about my health, Parker?_ Then she’d popped a _third_ vitamin gummy into her mouth, not even caring that there was probably a _limit_. Jesus, MJ.)

ANYWAY.

MJ goes from having her cellphone on vibrate or airplane mode because she hates people to turning the ringer all the way up and blaring “Best of Both Worlds” at least three times a day. It’s even the alarm tone to signal the end of decathlon practice.

Peter wouldn’t even really notice – OK, that’s a lie. He would totally notice anything about MJ. In a non-creepy way, of course – except it’s the song paired with the smirk MJ has on her face _every single time_ that it plays.

Now Peter isn’t one to be paranoid. (He is. He totally is, says a voice that sounds suspiciously like Ned Leeds.) But he can’t help but feel paranoid. Because 1) If MJ was going to use a Hannah Montana song shouldn’t it be a good one like “Nobody’s Perfect?” 2) She always lets the song play for a bit before silencing it which is SUSPICIOUS. 3) She smirks more than usual when it goes off around him. 4) THE LYRICS. This should be number one – the most obvious reason for his paranoia. It makes Peter wonder: does MJ _know_? She _does_ , doesn’t she? He’s totally Miley Stewart living a double life.

-

That night after he finishes his nightly neighborhood watch, Peter decides to ask Ned. “Have you noticed anything weird about MJ recently?” he asks while tripping out of his suit.

Ned finishes slurping down his Capri Sun and responds, “Peter, dude. MJ is _always_ weird. You gotta be more specific.”

Peter’s head pops through the neck hole of his t-shirt as he clarifies. “She’s been weirder lately. It’s her ringtone; it’s “Best of Both Worlds” and it’s always going off around me.”

Ned stares at Peter like he’s an idiot. Admittedly he is standing in the middle of his room lamenting whether the girl he kind of has a crush on knows his superhero identity and is taunting him about it with a song from 2006.

Maybe Ned doesn’t get the severity of the situation. “You know,” Peter says, waving his hand around a bit. “ _You get the beeeest of both worlds. Without the shades or the hair, you can go anywhere_ ,” he sings off-key. “You know! _Miley Stewart_ the ordinary teen living a double life as superstar Hannah Montana. She has a _secret identity_.”

Ned’s silent for a beat that makes Peter feel a bit lame, which was probably Ned’s point. Then: “No, yeah. I know. So, are you saying that MJ knows you’re Spider-Man, but knows you don’t know that she knows, so she’s taunting you? Or are you saying that you wish you would’ve thought to use the ringtone first?” He’s trying not to laugh as he says the last part.

Peter picks up a stray Lego and chunks it at him in retaliation, but Ned swats the piece away easily. “I’m serious, Ned. I think she knows.”

Ned leans back in Peter’s desk chair, his hands braced behind his head. “It’s almost like you should’ve told her two weeks ago when I told you to.”

Peter gives him a deadpan look. “You’re also the guy who wanted to be the only one who knew because it made you feel special.”

“I’ve evolved,” Ned says around a smirk.

-

The next day at lunch when it happens again Peter nudges Ned a little to say _see I_ told _you!_ Ned nudges him back in a way that says _talk to her!!!_

Ned’s right. Peter should definitely talk to MJ about it. Easy peasy. They’re friends. They hang out at Starbucks sometimes while they attempt to study. He can totally ask her this Saturday when they meet up to drink coffee and people watch before MJ’s shift.

“MJ,” he blurts out. She looks up from her copy of a bell hook book, her eyebrows raised in a question. “Um. Are we still on for Saturday morning?”

That is precisely the moment that her alarm goes off and she, Peter, and Ned stare at her phone as Hannah Montana sings. MJ looks up at him again, and smirking, says, “Yup.”

-

Saturday rolls around and Peter is more nervous than usual. He thought he couldn’t get more nervous than he was the first time MJ gave him her undivided attention for thirty minutes. But alas, here he is sweating a little and a feeling a bit sick to his stomach. As he walks to the corner Starbucks, he thinks about banging his head against every brownstone he passes and running back home. He doesn’t though; he perseveres and when he walks into Starbucks, MJ is already sitting on a small couch sipping her drink and scrolling through her phone.

Peter sighs and walks over to her, dropping heavily onto the couch. “Parker,” MJ says around her straw.

“Hey, MJ, I –” he can totally do this. He can act normal. Not at all suspicious that she knows his secret. “How, uh. How’s your morning been?” That sounds like a normal thing he usually says.

MJ narrows her eyes at him a little before flipping her phone around so he can see whatever is on the screen. “I’ve been watching videos of dogs reuniting with their owners.”

“Oh, so about the same as every other day,” he teases lightly. He can totally be normal.

They talk more but not about what Peter needs to talk to her about. She just sips her chai tea latte and is kind enough to ignore his bumbling responses. He can’t seem to find a time to bring it up because he’s so nervous to talk to her about it (he’s usually nervous around MJ 45% of the time now – thank god, it has lessened from the 92% it used to be) but he’s especially nervous now. So, he starts asking her stupid stuff about her life that he already knows. And that’s literally what she says when he asks if she has any pets:

“You already know I have a dog. What’s going on with you, Peter?”

He laughs nervously then looks toward the ceiling and sighs heavily. He turns to her and his mouth suddenly feels very dry. Like he gargled cotton balls. He can totally do this.

MJ is looking at him with concern. Or what Peter assumes would be concern on anyone else’s face, but it just looks like she’s mildly annoyed that she feels concern. Fuck, Peter is _screwed._

“MJ, I gotta tell you something. And I think you may already know. Or. You know. Maybe you don’t, but we’re friends – we are friends, right?” she nods. Taking a deep breath, he continues, “yeah, so we’re friends and I just wanted to tell you that I, uh. I’m –”

And then his phone starts going off and it’s “Best of Both Worlds.” He pulls it out of his pocket quickly. He’s very confused. Just staring at the _Hap_ that’s blinking on the Caller ID. MJ pulls him out of his reverie when she says, “duty calls, huh?” She’s smirking and before Peter can even parse out what she’s saying or what that might mean, MJ is standing and tying her apron around her waist. “Wha –”

“It’s cool. I’ve gotta start my shift soon anyway.” Then she’s walking away and Peter is scrambling to turn off Hannah Montana and answer Happy’s call. There’s a city he’s gotta save. Probably. It also might just be that Happy’s checking in on Peter.

“Hey, Happy,” Peter answers. Happy drones on in his ear – he _was_ just checking in on Peter like he’s a child – but Peter is only halfway listening. He’s mostly watching MJ tuck her hair under her cap as she walks behind the counter to the register. God, she’s really something else. How did she even get a hold of his phone to change his ringtone? Jesus _Christ._

-

Peter ducks out of the store while MJ is busy with a customer. He’s so discombobulated as he walks back to his apartment that it’s only when he’s walking up the stoop that he realizes he never even ordered his drink. This is really chalking up to be a clusterfuck of a Saturday.

He tells Ned this when he walks into the apartment and finds him and Aunt May dumping about a gallon of syrup on stacks of pancakes.

“How was your date?” Aunt May asks over the rim of her coffee mug.

“Not a date, Aunt May,” Peter says just as he says every other Saturday he comes back from hanging out with MJ. He slumps into his chair and steals five pancakes off the top of the small mountain in the center of the table.

Aunt May doesn’t believe him because she never believes him. And because she doesn’t believe him, she says what she always says. “Ned, do you hang out with MJ alone nearly every Saturday of the month?” She cuts her eyes over at Ned who, shoveling a bite in his mouth, shakes his head vehemently.

Peter promptly rolls his eyes. “Either way, we have more pressing issues.” He stabs his fork into his next bite.

“I guess you didn’t tell her then?”

“Ask her what?” Aunt May asks, looking between the two of them.

Ned chuckles in what Peter thinks is _far_ too much glee. “So. Here’s the deal –” Then he proceeds to tell her Peter’s very pressing issue.

Peter clears his throat. “Also, somehow my own ringtone is now “Best of Both Worlds” too.”

Ned nearly chokes on a bit of pancake because he’s laughing so hard.

Aunt May – clearly trying not to laugh – gives Peter’s arm a comforting squeeze. “Just tell her, yeah? The sooner the better.”

Peter sighs and goes back to eating his food. He knows he has to tell her. Hopefully next time there won’t be any interruptions.

-

After decathlon practice on Monday, Peter catches up with MJ as she’s leaving.

“About Saturday. Can we, you know. Finish that conversation? I really need to tell you something.”

MJ, with a knowing look on her face, says, “Sure, Parker. Drop by work tomorrow. I’ll take my break around 6:30.”

No backing out now. “That works. See you then.”

It’s when she’s walking away that she looks over her shoulder and gives Peter a small smile. It pulls at something behind Peter’s ribcage.

-

He gets to Starbucks fifteen minutes early and orders his coffee. MJ puts the wrong name on his cup like she does every time because she’s the best and worst person. She’d written _Peta_ four times in a row for a bit, then the last time it was _Petra._ And for some strange reason, she wrote _Nelson_ once. This time, though, there’s just a crude drawing of a spider.

Peter sees it when he sits at his table and like EUREKA! Peter knows she knows. No question about it. Then he has a small freak out because like, _yeah,_ he was pretty confident she knew. But that was speculation, really. Maybe she just really really really loved Hannah Montana. But nope! She totally knows he’s Spider-Man. MJ is one of the smartest people he knows – of course she already knew.

It does take off the pressure that Peter was feeling about having to confess his identity to her. Instead, there’s the new pressure of having to say _I know you know._

So, he sits there for another ten minutes silently freaking out and watching her work but not in a creepy way. He always looks away before she can notice him watching her. Which is, you know, par for the course.

At 6:30, MJ clocks out for her break and comes to sit opposite him. He nudges his coffee cup across the table so the spider doodle she made fifteen minutes earlier is facing her. “So. You know.”

She looks up from the spider doodle and stares at him. After a long pause, she says, “took you long enough,” and smirks. Her hair is falling in ringlets around her face; she looks soft and smells of coffee grounds, but she’s smirking at Peter like she’s always got him figured out. Which, apparently, she does. Of course she does.

“So I’m a bit slow on the upkeep,” he says, leaning back in his chair. He continues, “how did you figure it out?”

“Peter, full offense, you’re not very sneaky. I just thought you were really weird at first and maybe it was a coincidence that you were missing in Washington while Spider-Man was there. But then you started getting weird phone calls and dipping out on Friday night movie nights which were at _your_ apartment. It didn’t take me long to put the pieces together.”

“You’re easy for me to read, Parker.” She says a bit softly and pushes the coffee cup back across the table. “I know you.”

Peter had been frowning down at his hands while she told him just how sneaky he _hadn’t_ been, but he looks up at that comment. She’s smiling at him, just a little. It’s the same smile she has when they leave decathlon practice at the same time or when he shows up to sit with her sometimes before her shift, and when she hands him his coffee cup with the wrong name on it.

“Yeah,” he says, smiling shyly back at her. “I guess you might.”

-

Friday, during movie night, he and MJ are sitting beside each other. Close enough that if Aunt May came home she’d make an embarrassing comment.

Ever since Tuesday night things have been a bit _more_ between them. Usually Peter pines a little from afar. But MJ keeps smiling softly every time he says something dumb (which is quite often) instead of teasing him ruthlessly. And he’s walked her home every day after decathlon practice too. Everything is the same except for how it feels like they’re on the brink of something great.

Peter is full of nervous excitement that makes his palms a little sweatier, his stomach a little achier, and his words a little dumber.

He leans into MJ’s space a little more and whispers, “I’ve been wondering. How did you change my ringtone without me knowing?”

MJ turns to him so their faces are a breath away from touching. Her smile is so big and mischievous Peter thinks he might combust. “Your passcode is literally 0000 and you leave it lying around all the time, Peter.”

Peter narrows his eyes and teases, “I don’t think I appreciate you possibly looking through my phone.”

MJ searches his entire face before settling on his eyes. There is a long moment before she says anything. A moment in which Peter wants to learn a little closer. “I’d be embarrassed about taking that many selfies wearing the mask too.”

The scoffing noise Peter makes borders on a squeal, but it’s okay because it makes MJ laughs which is probably one of the best things he’s heard.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't write it but basically after this they eventually kiss and Peter’s really into holding hands and MJ doesn’t even mind when he does it at school. Or when he’s walking her home after decathlon practice. Or when they’re sitting in Starbucks before MJ’s shift starts.


End file.
